The British Press were guilty of horrible things to get their stories, they used to hack phones and mobiles and the likes...this, when it came out, led to the Government calling Lord Justice Levenson to make a public enquiry about the matter and come up with reccomendations on how to regulate the press to stop this happening again....the worry we all have is that the Government will see this as an excuse to begin a State Regulation of the press....this would not only be bad on a censorship level, but also because one of the loudest voices of legitamate opposition to the Government, is the press itself in this country...

The Prime Minister made a statement in Westminster Palace about this after having looked through the results.

In Short, The Lord Justice says that the police and the Press have to close links and there now has to be official guidelines on what can and cant be reported, secretly, off the record so to speak, to Journalists.

The Lord Justice says that links between the Government and the Press are ALREADY too close to each other. However, Lord Justice Leveson has found the Conservative Party are innocent of the possibility that the Prime Minister and the Head of News International, were...erm...in on the ploy.

Lord Justice Levenson also looked at the Conservative connection to trying to sway the outcome of the British Sky Broadcasting TV Media, something one of the Cabinet Officials was supposed to have been doing...Again Lord Justice Leveson find the Government Innocent of any wrong doing in the matter.

Both of these are SERIOUS alligations that, had they been proven correct, would be liable to topple the Government all together. Whilst it was an independant review, one must remember, it was the Prime Minister who chose who would lead it...if we REALLY want to call Corruption, we only need say that Lord Justice is a friend of his, and thus unlikely to find him Guilty...no?

Lord Justice Leveson has concluded that the Press Complaints Comission which is supposed to be the code of conduct for the Press is basically rubbish. He says that as any insitution, or person, the Press are subject to criminal and civil law, but he does feel there should be some proper regulation.

Lord Justice Leveson does not think the Press are able to regulate themselves, and so there must be an independant regulator, independant, supposedly, of press and government.

Lord Justice Levenson says that the Data Protection Act should be ammended to drop any extra ability of Journalists to use or get hold of personal data. The Government do not like that idea.

Lord Justice Levenson also wants some system of official rewards for those press who are prepared to go under the thumb of an independant regulator. The Government dont like this idea because it means producing legislation, and actually the prime minister doesnt want to put anything into Law specifically about the media, for fears of censorship claims.

The Opposition...the Labour party...the Left, believe that the Government should trust completely in the reccomendations of the Leveson enquiry, and should put this thing into law, should produce legislation specifically about the press, and recognition of the independant regulator....which would of course, be their way into future control of the press.

Your press is corrupt. Getting the government involved is to supposed to improve things?

Our "corrupt" Press has the power to change Government policy in a matter of days....Noone wants the Government to be incharge of press regulation...the real question is...when the independant regulator is set up...Who makes sure THAT doesnt become corrupt? The Press? The Government? do you follow...who makes sure the independance remains, independant

Its bizzare that your Press are so powerless...you would have thought that for a nation thats based on the will of the people...it would have something that could ensure the Federal Government is kept in check. The Press is the voice of the people in this country...NOT the Government...the Press ensure that when our ellected dictators do naughty things, immoral things, or simply can not be arsed...that they get their dirty laundry aired in public...and the shame and humiliation is always too much.

Incidently...the Press it appears also has the power to put pressure on Courts independant of the Judiciary...like, for example, a Military Court Marshall....oh yes they did....just this week...they ran with the story of the poor soldier who was presented with the gift of a firearm, and then got done for having it in his possession.

Lock him up and throw away the key was the attitude before the media got involved. Then, the whole world knew...and the Court Marshall found him innocent and released him within the week.

When will you guys learn, power doesnt lie with authority, it lies with public opinion....The Principles of Rome...SPQR....The Senate AND The Will of The People...well...if the Government take the position of Senate...then its The Press which takes the position, Will of The People. Even in the videos above the Government admit that almost the main duty of the press is to hold them to account.

I assume, with your system of Government, The Will of The People is supposed to be the House of Representatives...no? and the Senate is...well, the Senate, one supposes?

In our Government, we have a House of Lords...those who are/were Land owners, and a House of Commons...those who were Commoners, representatives, of each council...like your Representatives are of each State Government.

We recognise however that the joining of those commoners together IS The Government. We acknowledge that FAR from "Representing" us, they are part of the Establishment, and there to represent Not us to the Establishment, but the Establishment to us. Like it or not...since your Federal Government has grown chronically obease...you are in exactly the same position. Your State Governments, do not represent you to a Congress...Rather...they attend, and then return to their areas to carry out the representation of the Federal Government.

We therefore, acknowledge the need for a Dis-established Will of The People...because whilst Established, it only represents itself to us, rather then us to itself.

IMHO you guys need to do that, at least until your State Governments stop acting like County Councils....Then you switch to keeping your eye on them aswell, because rather then one federal government...you'll find fifty of them The Press is where you can get your voice...you just have to dare to take them on. If they have done something wrong, name and shame them, tell the world, point and stare...they'll be petrified...they will cave under the pressure.

If Our Press can do that to our rabble of a Government, where everyone shouts at once and boos and the likes...how much easier will it be to impact the more refined modus operandi of Congress

Our press had the power to get a screw-up like Obama re-elected. Our population is too easily controlled by the media.

You think the Press are responsible for the Re-Ellection of Barack Obama??

I, personally, would have blamed that on two things, firstly, the weather the week before, and secondly I really dislike the whole ideal of the Electoral Collage

Also I think we should make a difference between Press, and Media...I am NOT including Television when I talk about the power of the Press, neither Radio...I am litterally talking about the Newspapers

We have a nice ballence of sides in our press, which means you can pretty much read the same stories, but from different political view points. So you read the Daily Mail and the Daily Express and The Daily Telegraph and they are calling Cameron a Hero for standing up for the Freedom of the Press...You read the SAME story in the Daily Mirror, The Independant and The Observer, and you find Cameron has betrayed the victims by being hesitant on the outcome...and The Time and The Independant will no doubt choose to focus on the fact the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister are vocal against one another. The Sun, The Star and The Sport all speak complete shyte, and you wouldnt really want to be caught dead reading any of them I often read both the Mail AND the Mirror...I therefore get the Right and the Left view on the same issue and I imagine the truth is probably inbetween

Our press had the power to get a screw-up like Obama re-elected. Our population is too easily controlled by the media.

Our press should be there for the public, holding our public elected officials accountable; they should be "the people's" eyes and ears, but sadly, the main stream media are just lackeys for Obama.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyburn

You think the Press are responsible for the Re-Ellection of Barack Obama??

Also I think we should make a difference between Press, and Media...I am NOT including Television when I talk about the power of the Press, neither Radio...I am litterally talking about the Newspapers

The main stream media were and are a big part of the Obama machine, Dave. During the campaign (heck, during the first go-round and these past four years) anything that was viewed as negative to the President was barely covered or not covered at all; but any chance to make him look "Presidential" or "Commander-in-Chief" they were all over it. It wasn't just the newspapers, it was the tv ads, tv shows, internet blogs, social media like FB and Twitter, etc... You can't discount any media where Obama is concerned.

You can't really separate "the press" from "media", not anymore. They are not working for "the people", they are working for Obama, at least the liberal main stream media is. That's what is so alarming...how completely unprofessional and openly biased they have been since Obama came onto the Presidential scene. If the public can't rely on professional press/news media to report important news stories without prejudice or bias, or to uncover lies we're being told, or to reveal the truth, who can we rely on?